1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating wipes for transitioning between scenes in video. More specifically, the invention relates to user-generated wipes which can be of any configuration as desired by the user for use with a particular video editing system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wipes are a video effect well known both in the video art and to the general public. The wipe is a video (or film) special effect that seems to replace one video image with another. In reality, the two video images share the screen but one replaces the other in a set pattern. For instance, a typical wipe seems to push the image off the screen from left to right. Well-known wipe patterns include vertical wipes, horizontal wipes, and special wipes such as the "clock" wipe (also known as the "rotary" wipe) that replaces the images as if clock hands were sweeping the image off the screen.
Wipes are a special form of transition between video images.
In the prior art, wipes are typically formed by digital wave form generators in computer-based video editing. The prior art method requires the presence of these special digital wave form generators and/or analog wave form generators, the output of which is converted to digital form, for forming the particular desired wipe pattern on the screen. This system has the disadvantage that the human editor is limited to the particular wipe patterns which are prespecified by the wave form generators. Thus, it is not possible to have arbitrary range user-definable wipes. Also, the additional complexity of the wave form generators makes the equipment which generates such wipes relatively expensive.
Thus, the prior art has the disadvantage of both limiting the kind of wipes that can be performed, and requiring relatively sophisticated and expensive equipment to perform any sort of wipe.